You are trying to concentrate during an examination but you get distracted by the sound of another student tapping her pencil on her desk. Which of the following stages of the information processing model are you in?

a. Selective attention/comprehension

b. Encoding and simplification

c. Storage and retention

d. Retrieval and response

e. Recognition

a. Selective attention/comprehension

Explanation:

Selective attention/comprehension -

It refers to some specific external factors, which alerts someone's attention, is referred to as Selective attention/comprehension.

The factors can be some external factors like some specific words, activities, situation etc.

Hence, from the given scenario of the question,

The students gets distracted by the sound of the pencil on desk.

The correct answer is a. Selective attention/comprehension.